Beat down

Today, I gave my students a standardized reading test, which was required by the district. In its efforts to attack freshmen development/testing slumps, the DO decided to add two more reading/writing tests to the students' list of assessments throughout the year. So now, my students take finals in January and June, course and teacher specific. They take a standardized reading test twice per year, in Sept/Oct and April. Our school has also decided to do writing assessments school-wide to trace progress in writing skills; the students get that three times per year.

So, for most of my freshmen, I gave them a writing assessment yesterday and the first of a two-day reading assessment today. (Don't get me started on how the DO thought it would be a one-period test and it really, really is not; the directions say it's untimed, for golly's sake!) My 2/3 period class was pretty quiet, but I'm their first two periods of the day, for most of them anyway, so I didn't think anything of it. I should have known something was in the air, though, since they're also the most outgoing, the most talkative, and the most comfortable with each other and me. My 4th and 5th periods were unsually low-energy, low-key, and quiet. I found out why as I handed out the tests to my 5th period: other departments in the school were doing the first of two progress assessments today. Two students in 5th period had a "standardized" or progress test every period: science in 2nd period, Spanish in 3rd period, swim test in 4th period, and then the second of 3 English tests in my class 5th period.

My kids are beat down. I didn't have to read the directions about how to fill out the name, date, grade, gender, birthday, ID bubbles on the answer sheet. They listened quietly to directions and rolled their eyes. They finished the tests quickly and then put their head down. Most students genuinely fell asleep. I would too, if I'd been assessed all day. Even if the kids didn't take it seriously (and most seemed to, from what I saw), being assessed and reading and figuring out: it's tiring for their poor 14 and 15 year old brains. I didn't teach most of the day, and I'm exhausted!

--

My reading/English kids 2/3 period were the funniest, and I have never loved them as much as I did today. I have them for two periods back-to-back and I don't even let them out for the 5 minute passing period for a break. My instructional model for the reading program is pretty structured: 20 minutes in whole group, then 3 20-minute rotations, then 10 minutes wrap-up. Since I have them for 110 minutes continually, we do the model the way it's supposed to be, and then we finish out the time with some of the freshmen-required syntax unit.

Today, the students were still working on their reading assessment when the bell rang for the end of the 2nd period. One student asked if he could get up and go near the door. Since he's recovering from a nasty cold, I thought he was going to go outside and spit, which he's been doing 2-3 times per day for a few days. Nope. He got up, pulled the door stop up, and closed the door, simply returning to his reading assessment. Now this kid, he's a goof-off and an instigator and a quick thinker and a lot of other things that substitute teachers don't like. I was shocked that he even thought to close the door (which I do on normal days to prevent my students from getting distracted by the students outside changing classes), much less wanted one less distraction from his test.

My block class was all voted to have both the reading and writing tests on the same day. Originally, I presented it to them as two tests that would take 2 full periods. They said break it up; that's too much! I thought, okay, that makes sense. Then one student was smart enough to ask if that would mean two days without rotations, I admitted that would be the case, and most students changed to all tests on one day. One even called attention to how much sooner he wanted to get to the next article in our reading book, about the Black Plague, and about half the class echoed his enthusiasm.

Now, I know this will skew the results. Students whose brains have been tested for two solid hours will not perform as well as students who have not. I don't feel bad about this for two main reasons: this is the pre-test for both assessments. Both will have follow-ups, maybe 2 follow-ups. Plus? I myself would prefer to have one more solid day to teach instead of being interrupted so much... by these important assessments... that assess things I'm supposed to be teaching... but I don't have time to teach because I'm giving the assessments... to test their abilities based on my teaching... you see where I'm going here?

S-T-R-E-S-S-E-D or desserts?

This week is the worst kind of stress: home, work, and volunteer.

Tonight is Back to School Night. Many may know that I don't bother decorating my room much, but I always feel like I need to make an effort right before the parents come. I started looking at my room through parents' eyes on Friday and decided they'd think the microphones and headphones at each computer were left messy, the big gaping hole where the clock should be is very ghetto, and the bare walls would be uninviting. Not to mention the bulletin board from last year that still has work and photos from last year. So I've been trying to get supplies to make my room nice. Plus, I'm a bit behind in grading (not as bad as usual) and feel like I should try to get caught up and get grades printed in case parents want to know.

At home, I've been working hard to keep the place clean, but it's starting to ware on me. I don't want to nag my honey to do stuff, but sometimes it takes him DAYS to empty the dishwasher, and then the dirty dishes pile up and, frankly, start stinking up the place. Plus, he doesn't take out the garbage until you've truly compacted it, he'd prefer to put empty boxes and bottles on the dryer than take out the recycling, and he doesn't care if there are clothes to fold and put away because we normally pile them on my couch, not his. Luckily, last night, he finally did a lot of the work that needed to be done, in addition to filling a load of dishes (which is my job) because he knew he was preventing me from doing mine.

And then there's the volunteer stuff. Ugh. This weekend, I'll be one of two main organizers for a picnic that will welcome over 250 people to a park for a celebration. Getting the details just right - confirming RSVPs, scheduling vendors and entertainers, securing raffle items, making signs, recruiting volunteers, budgeting, etc. - has been exhausting. It didn't seem like that much work 6 months ago, but none of the volunteers wanted to start really thinking about getting the work done until 3 weeks ago. (Me included, to tell you the truth; at least I tried.) And now I'm spending 2-3 hours between the email and the phone confirming plans and answering questions. Someone better send me a care package soon, cuz I'm gonna bust. My co-organizer and I have been joking about drinking after the picnic, but it's getting to be less and less like a joke.

All of that taken with the fact that my work-out buddy is out of town (and I'm not sure I'd have time to workout if she were in town) and my period is on its way... well, my stress level is high and so's my intake of creamy sugary foods. Which is bad for me, for those who are wondering.

Back to hanging posters and grading papers.

4-year battle nearly over

I got this email today:

This e-mail verifies that you have met all of the necessary academic
requirements for:

Credential(s):
Professional Clear Single Subject Teaching Credential

Submitted: Tue Sep 19 00:57:28 EDT 2006

/me sighs the largest sigh of relief.

Because I don't believe in the Oracle

Stolen from donna, who stole it from hkath, whose URL I don't know off the top of my head.

1. Put your music player on shuffle.
2. Press forward for each question.
3. Use the song title as the answer to the question even if it doesn't make sense. NO CHEATING!
4. Tag 10 people to play this game too.

One more addendum: I share a music server with my husband, so if I don't know the song, I'm skipping to the next one.

-> Will you get far in life?
"Harbor Lights" by Bruce Hornsby. As far as I know, it's about seduction.

->How do your friends see you?
"Superstition" by Stevie Wonder
Seven years of bad luck, good things in the past Lovely.

->Will you get married?
"Meanies" by Jim's Big Ego
Goodies like us, we have to stick tight and tell ourselves that we are right. Uh hunh.

->What is your best friend's theme song?
"What's It All About" by Five O'Clock Shadow
I've always said I'll do whatever the hell I want Yup, that's about right.

->What is the story of your life?
"Give Judy my Notice" by Ben Folds
'Cuz I come running when you want me here

->What was high school like?
"Shimmer" by Shawn Mullins
I want to shimmer, I want to shine, I want to radiate, I want to live, I want to love, I want to try to learn not to hate Yup.

->How can you get ahead in life?
"Downtown Lights" by Annie Lennox.
Um, I've never liked this song. But, "just accept the present" or "take notice of your surroundings"? I don't know the advice here.

->What is the best thing about your friends?
"Love's Recovery" by Indigo Girls
Yikes. The best part is we can be morbidly honest? I don't know.

->What is today going to be like?
"Jolly Roving Tar" by GBS
Apparently, I'm going to get uproariously drunk. That should be interesting, since I have library orientation scheduled all day for class.

->What is in store this weekend?
"I Love L.A." by Randy Newman
You can't drag me to L.A. this weekend to save my life. For many reasons.

->What song describes you?
"Starbright" by Jim Brickman
Did I forget to mention that all our Christmas music is on the server too? =)

->What song describes your grandparents?
"Opening Time" by Push Stars
Sometime I feel like I'm the salt on your soul / Or what's left over in your cereal bowl / Or like cheap coffee that's turning to cold Yikes.

->How is your life going now?
"She Has a Girlfriend Now" by Reel Big Fish
It's not like that. Really. On the other hand, I was out with my "girlfriends" the last three nights in a row, so I think Joe might throttle me soon if I don't pay attention to him soon.

->What song would they play at your funeral?
"Winter Wonderland" by Tony Bennett
Again with the Christmas. My mom wants "It's Over" from ELO played at her funeral. Dad says not while he's alive. Mom says it's now in her will. =)

->How does the world see you?
"California" by Rufus Wainwright
I live there, yes. My extended family can't seem to understand that where I live is a good 6-8 hours' drive from my cousin in LA. Heh. Different life.

->Will you have a happy life?
"Centerfold," cover of the J. Geils Band by a cappella group Delusions of Grandeur
I'm not posing. My subscription to Playboy ran out a few years ago and I did not renew because I never had time to read it.

->What do your friends really think of you?
"S.R." by Reel Big Fish
All the other bands are shit! Hehehe. See previous post

->Do people secretly lust after you?
"Crucify " by Tori Amos
I'm not sure that's a direct answer.

->How can I make myself happy?
"Senza Motivo Apparente" by Ennio Morricone
Um, this song has no lyrics to work from. But I love the muted trumpet. Does that answer the question?

->What should I do with my life?
"Don't Look Back" by The Temptations
I kid you not. That's what came up. Man, that sucks. There goes all my scrapbooking time and money.

->Will you ever have children?
"I'm Waiting for the Man" by Velvet Underground
Um, didn't I already found him? I mean, I have a kid. Soo...

Restless

I am musically restless. It's been going on for a few weeks. The only thing I can work to right now is BEP, and I'm getting sick of it. When I listen to the iPod in the car, I skip through nearly every song, and the only one I've heard the end of in weeks is something from Stevie Wonder.

I picked up BEP in early 2006, I've been enjoying Juanes's Mi Sangre, and that's all the new music in my life. Unless you count Music Together, which I don't.

In college and shortly thereafter, I was always learning about new performers because I was going to concerts a lot. I'd see the opener, or talk to other people in the audience about their favorite music, so new stuff was always popping up on the radar. I haven't been to a complete show in almost 2 years now. I didn't think I'd miss it.

And the radio is so stale. I don't mind listening to it, but there's so rarely anything on I'd like enough to buy an entire CD of. I'm even tired of my favorite radio station, and I never thought that was possible.

I need some recommendations. I'm thinking I need something heavier, something with a driving beat, but something that's fairly cheerful (or at least, not depressing). I've been through the mellow music phase, and I don't feel now like I did then. I need something to get my blood going, to get me bopping in the car while I'm driving, to get me focused on the work that I tend to have at hand.

Any suggestions?

Juxtaposition

It is the worst kind of juxtaposition to finish listening to Night by Elie Wiesel on CD in the car... and the CD changer begins playing "Real World" by John Mayer. Oddly enough, I found several appropriate phrases that linked, though.

Stepping in line

For a long time, actually - since the beginning, I have not been writing real lesson plans for my classes.

I've been looking at resources, figuring out what the students need to work on, and pulling something together. I have no lesson plans, no unit plans, no nothing. The last 2 years, I've been flying by the seat of my pants, making things up as I go, letting inspiration move me as it needs to. More than once (and I'm ashamed to admit this), I've come up with what I'm doing in class that day on my drive to work. Occasionally, I'll write something in the little boxes in my teacher plan book, but they're bullet points about skills or pages, not actually what we're going to do, just what we're going to cover. And more often than not, when I do that for a week or more at a time, it's totally bogus by the time I get to the end of the planned stuff. I'm not on schedule, I've skipped things I need to figure out how to backtrack for, I've lost all inspiration and don't know where to go from there. Oh, or I just forget to look in the book once I write it down.

This year, we're being WASCed. Plus, I'm getting sick of reinventing the wheel for myself every year. So I've been trying to keep better tabs on what I'm doing. And, I've begun to write lesson plans. I've only written two so far, but I'm doing okay. Date, objectives, standards, materials/prep, procedure, eval. No problem.

I like working with lesson plans. When I wrote them for credential classes and then used them afterwards, they seem more thought out, more aware, more connected than most of my other teaching. I'm just not a planner, I'm rarely organized, and I seem to have so many other things to do with my time.

So, my question: do people seriously write lesson plans for every day? Wow. This seems like a lot of work. Don't get me wrong, it's good work. I think it'll make me a better teacher in the short and long run, but, man! My little fingers have been typing for mostly an hour now, and I've only written Tuesday's and Wednesday's lessons out. Do these go faster? Are they easier?

And here's my other beef: veteran teachers at my HS tell me that they continue to revise, edit, pitch, and insert new lesson plans every year. Seriously? I mean, I can see teachers go through things and rethinking and everything. But, sometimes they really do start from the beginning? Yikes. So all this work I'm doing this year might be worth nothing next year? Really?

More quotes from Deptford

"Dr. von Haller: Oh, come. We all create an outward self with which to face the world, and some people come to believe it is what they truly are. So they people the world with doctors who are nothing outside the consulting-room, and judges who are nothing when they are not in court, and businessmen who wither in boredom when they have to retire from business, and teachers who are forever teaching. That is why they are such poor specimens when they are caught without their masks on. They have lived chiefly through the Persona."

"... every man who amounts to a damn has several fathers, and the man who begat him ... may not be the most important father. The father you choose for yourself are the significant ones. But you didn't choose Boy, and you never knew him. No; no man knows his father. If Hamlet hd known his father he would never have made such an almighty fuss about a man who was fool enough to marry Gertrude."

"It all came about because of boredom. Boredom and stupidity and patriotism, especially when combined, are three of the greatest evils of the world we live in."

"'I don't agree,' said Ingestree. 'I think joking about the past is a way fo suggesting that it wasn't really important. A way of veiling its horror, perhaps. We shudder when we hear of yesterday's plane accident, in which seventy people were killed; but we become increasingly philosophical about horrors that are further away. What is the Charge of the Light Brigade now? We remember it as a military blunder... We joke about the historic fact and the poetic fact. But how many people ever think of the young men that charged? Who takes five minutes to summon up in his mind what they felt as they rushed to death? It is the fate of the past to be fuel for humour.
"'Have you put your finger on it?' said Lind... 'Jokes dissemble horrors and make them seem unimportant. And why? Is it in order that more horrors may come? In order that we may never learn anything from experience? I have never been very fond of jokes. I being to wonder if they are not evil.'"

"'But what's an autobiography? Surely it's a romance of which one is oneself the hero. Otherwise, why write the thing?'"

Good things

We went to a park yesterday for a Labor Day picnic - me, my husband, my 2.5yo daughter, and a friend from college. He hasn't seen Claire since mid-July, and Halloween before then. She's had a lot of growing in that time. At lunch, he kept saying, "It's like talking to a short adult. She responds to you, she answers questions, she starts conversations."

He's right, too. I don't see my daughter through his eyes often, but Claire is a lot like a small adult. This evening she scarfed down a bowl of fruit and 1.5 pierogis before telling Joe, "Daddy, I would like some garlic salt on mine, please." It wasn't a demand, and it wasn't full of contractions. Even the fact that she expressed an interest in garlic salt, after seeing Joe use it but without either of us naming it tonight, is truly amazing. Joe had to ask her to repeat herself, it was so surprising and unassuming.

This evening, I took her for a walk to the local strip mall to get a cookie or two for her and some coffee or cider for me. I don't walk with her as much as I'd like, since I rarely pick her up from daycare before I have to go home and make dinner these days. The walk was good, though. We talked about her day at school and said hello to "Luna," as Claire calls the moon. She raced ahead of me, and then waited for me to catch up before racing ahead again.

Along the way, Claire's always looking for something to hold. She picks up sticks, leaves, rocks... anything to either put on our mantlepiece or put in the rosemary bush "for company." I remember being a collector of rocks and pretty leaves, but can't get into my young head enough to remember the motivation for it now.

Claire's got the motivation, though. On our way to the cookie store, she told each and every small rock and twig to stay where it was "and I'll come and get you when we come back, okay?" And then she'd report to me, with a little laugh, "I told the rock to stay there until I got back, Mommy."

True to her word, though, she picked up every twig and rock on the way back, for a total or four this evening. At some point, she fell down while balancing on some big river rocks and broke a twig, which she left with the rocks since it was no longer long. But then her eye caught a longer but skinnier twig and a smaller river rock, which she picked up.

She held them up for my inspection. "I've got little things, Mommy. I'm got a little stick and a little rock. I've got little things, good things."

Me too.

Vino

In 1999, when I was hired at Merchant of Vino, what I call the bastard child of Whole Foods Market, I was just looking for a discount and another part-time job to pay the bills. I had just quit Gratzi, a coffeehouse at Briarwood Mall, because the manager and I did not get along. I was working at Sylvan as a tutor and I was soon to pick up a job tutoring Alison, a 7th grader recovering from leukemia. Plus, it was 2 blocks from our apartment.

Although I was only at Merchant of Vino for about a year, I really enjoyed it. My work in the deli was fun at a time when the store was changing: they renovated the bakery and added a salad bar while was I there. When they redid the bakery, a few of us wrote our name and “Deli rocks” in the cement before they laid the tile. The deli seemed to be where the action was, since we were next to the front door and worked closely with produce while regularly serving staff from wine, cashiers, and meat.

The best part was the people. I still say that my manager in the department, former butcher turned cheese expert Holly Barr, is the best boss I’ve ever had. She knew how to be friends with her co-workers while still being in charge. She regularly scheduled outings to bars and bowling with us to build team spirit, but once we were back at work, she required us to be adult and kind to each other. It was the first time I’d encountered a single working mom, and she blew me away with her devotion and her determination; she held this job down while going to school. She was even able to handle Lucci, the chef and caterer, who no one ever crossed except Holly. Somehow, he listened to her, even when she said he was wrong. Then there was Kiki (the flirt from San Jose), Tony (the wisecracker), Sonya (the older and “more experienced” talker), Joyce (the retiree who turned me on to scrapbooking) and Dominic (formerly produce, now caterer under Lucci – I still can’t think of Vertical Horizon’s “Everything You Want” without thinking of him). All of these people were my friends, if only for a little while.

There were other benefits to my time at Vino, too. I was working lots of early mornings and weekends, and I always brought home lunchmeat and cheeses to make Joe’s lunches with. We tried almost every prepared food the deli and bakery offered, sometimes just before it passed its expiration date. When we had football parties or a friend like Donna was in town, we always got meals for free or deeply discounted prices. The Christmas I worked at Vino, I even made expensive sampler baskets of food for my godparents and grandparents, since I didn’t have time to make something by hand. Lots of people at Vino were trying to get me to go full-time (32 hours), since it also gave me benefits, a retirement savings plan, and paid volunteer hours. But I never got the chance to do it.

Whenever I walk into a Whole Foods, I still feel some kind of nostalgia for that time in my life. I still think about going back sometime in the future, but I won’t know if that’s in the stars for me until it happens. The Merchant of Vino I used to work out is no longer a Whole Foods, and they've eliminated a lot of the regular food in favor of expanding the alcohol section, so I can't go back there.

What is "literacy"?

Someone told me last year not to expect to have a textbook the first week. I figured that was pretty reasonable, and I could fill up the four-day week with plenty of rules and procedures practice, getting to know you activities, learning styles activities, and the like. Sure. But then I found that I really didn't have as much as I thought, so I decided to look for a lesson plan that would set the stage for the year, something that would be sufficiently introductory while being challenging to the thinking processes of the students.

I'm doing a modification of the ReadWriteThink lesson about defining text, literacy, and the skills needed to work with them. My 9th grade students found the third column on the first day hard; it requires them to brainstorm skills they use when creating with the wide range of texts they've already brainstormed. Words like "compose" and "design" are difficult for them after a long summer off, I think, so I got a lot of "write," "make," and "color." Oy.

Eventually, though, we got to the group definitions of literacy. They're not fabulous, but many of them of things that I was able to highlight and nudge the students toward for a class definition of literacy. The group definitions are below. My favorite thing about them is that some are obviously trying on words and phrases they know more educated people use to validate their definition, but others didn't even try. It's so obvious, and I can point to the groups that did one or the other.

• “Literacy in today’s world is still mainly reading and writing. Everything you do, in a way, is related to literacy. For example: when you’re making a gesture it’s like your body is writing out a message for the other person to read it."



• “To read and write is considered literacy. Literacy is discovering and learning the moods using the illustration to see if it will be a good book a movie or even a play. To me literacy in this world means being able to communicate your idea clearly and effectively. Use text to determine many things.”



• “In today’s world literacy is like being able to receive and get messages. Internet is a great way to receive email and text. We receive literacy by watching, listening, feeling. Music can express ideas in different culture as well as statues and buildings. There’s another way of receiving messages by chatting with friends and family.”



• “Today’s text includes many skills like reading, writing, listening, and thinking. Text is so important that without it the world would be unsafe. Most text is used to describe things. Text makes people understand things the same way.”



• “We think literacy is about making predictions. Books. Things express ideas, that makes people express themselves.”



• “Literacy is the total of everything in the world that can be learned or taught from such as reading, writing, media, books, internet, anything that has information.”



• “Literacy is an extremely important tool in education. Being able to read and write allows one to gain more knowledge. It also helps one get the vast amount of education possible. Literacy is more than just reading and writing, its understanding and applying written matter to function in society. It broadens one’s knowledge therefore helps him/her advance in life. Literacy is one’s most valuable possession.”



• “Literacy is being able to read and write. Literacy appeals to the five senses. It also paints a vivid picture in people’s minds. Literacy is deprived in some countries, and it expresses ideas in reading and writing.”



• “In today’s American dictionary, the word literacy is the meaning of being able to read and write. I think literacy in today’s world is all types of writing out there. It’s also how people communicate by writing. Writing is what makes people successful. Finally it means that you read a book and understanding what you read.”



• “Literacy is reading and learning how to write. It also is the ability to use language – to read, write, and speak. Literacy can also interacting with sound, still and moving images, making for another branch of literacy, and being able to express yourself in your own ideas and opinions.”